Box Score

The Walsh University men's basketball team (20-5, 16-5 GLIAC) closed the 50^th annual Mayors' Cup on a 37-22 run to return the trophy to North Canton, posting an 81-71 victory over the Pioneers (14-12, 12-10 GLIAC) at Osborne Hall Thursday night.
 
Malone stayed step-for-step with the Cavaliers in the first half behind senior Che Richardson's sharp-shooting. Richardson connected on all three of his first-half three-point tries to send Malone into the halftime only trailing 35-34.
 
Richardson carried over his stellar first half into the second, staying aggressive on the offensive end to finish with a season-high 17 points. His reverse layup with 10:45 to go in the ballgame gave Malone its biggest lead of the game at 49-44. Unfortunately, Walsh rattled off five straight to even the game.
 
It wasn't until 6:45 remaining in the game that the Cavaliers started to create some separation. With Walsh clinging to a slim 53-51 lead, Jesse Hardin was hit shooting a three-pointer; he subsequently connected on all three freebies. Moments later, he stepped in front of an errant Malone pass to give Walsh a 58-51 lead. Malone stuck around to cut the lead to 60-57 but 7'0 Croatian, Hrvoje Vucic quieted the raucous home crowd of 1,175 with a dagger three-pointer from the top of the arc to lift the lead back to six. The Pioneers would not get closer than six points the rest of the way.
 
Joining Richardson with 17-point outings were fellow seniors Isiah Elliott and Daniel Wise. The latter also corralled eight rebounds. Jeff Copeland led Walsh with 19 points while Vucic chipped in with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Malone went 28-for-65 (43.1%) on field goals and 8-for-22 (36.4%) from downtown. Walsh was an impressive 27-for-52 (51.9%) from the field but just 2-for-14 (14.3%) from distance. The biggest difference in the game was Walsh's ability to control the boards, out-rebounding the Pioneers 44-24. Walsh also had 30 free-throw attempts to Malone's 10.
 
With the loss, Malone wrapped up the No. 8 seed in the GLIAC Tournament and will travel to take on the top-seeded Lake Superior State University Lakers next Wednesday night. Tip-off will likely be at 7:00 p.m. Additional GLIAC Tournament information will be posted on www.malonepioneers.com once all the details are finalized next week.